Butte County and the City of Chico are currently researching whether Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) could be a good opportunity for its communities. CCA is a program that allows cities, counties and other qualifying governmental entities to purchase and/or generate electricity for their residents and businesses.

What is Community Choice Aggregation?

How it Works

If a local CCA is formed, it would purchase and/or generate electricity for customers and PG&E would continue to deliver the electricity through its transmission and distribution system and provide meter reading, billing, and maintenance services for CCA customers. The transition from PG&E to a CCA is seamless, and day-to-day, most customers will not notice any changes other than a CCA line item on their utility bill that replaces the PG&E electricity generation charges.

Watch Valley Clean Energy’s video to learn more about Community Choice Aggregation and see how a neighboring community’s CCA works.

Structure of a CCA

Cities, counties and/or other qualified government agencies can come together to form nonprofit public agencies that provide electric power for their communities. There is no law regulating how the governing body of a CCA should be structured, so each CCA is a little different. Most CCAs are governed under a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) by a governing board. This board is publicly accountable because it is usually comprised of a representative from each member city and county within the CCA jurisdiction. The board also sets the CCA’s policies and electricity rates. As a public agency, the CCA process is designed to be very transparent with all meetings and information open to the public. There are multiple approaches in staffing as well, from hiring a complete staff, to only hiring a handful of team members that manage vendor contracts.

Partnership with PG&E

If a CCA is formed, the CCA purchases power and PG&E distributes electricity through it's existing lines and infrastructure. PG&E would continue to provide meter reading, billing, and maintenance services to customers. Residents would receive a single bill from PG&E that shows two line items; the CCA generation charge and the PG&E transmission charge. The CCA component reflects the cost of the electricity used and the PG&E bill component is the fees/costs associated with delivering your power. If you utilize natural gas, you’ll continue to receive that service from PG&E.

Give Us Input

Butte County and the City of Chico want to hear from the community on the potential of a CCA. There are several ways to engage in this process: